Dec. 18, 2018
08:45 am JST

When is May going to get it through her head that the public- both those that want to stay and those that want to leave are not going to accept this deal? May is playing with fire. She is taking a huge gamble that parliament will crumble and accept her deal. She is probably wrong since NO ONE on the left or right likes it. She's setting up the UK for a hard brexit, which really seems more and more likely with every passing day.

Dec. 18, 2018
09:58 am JST

Oh, I have a better idea. How about they take the lifeline thrown to them by the European Court of Justice and cancel Brexit (or even just have a second referendum)?

I know that the EU has made its share of mistakes, but none of them compare to the horror of the wars that Europe has faced since...well, forever. The whole point of the EU was to stop that. It seems that 52% of UK voters forgot that terrible lesson.

Britain is an unbelievable mess: the two major parties are both pro-Brexit, both are convinced they can magically negotiate a better Brexit if only the voters will let them ride into Brussels on the magical Brexit Unicorn, and the unicorn-- which everyone else in the world can see is actually a Vauxhall Astra that came from the factory without a steering wheel-- is about to plunge off a cliff while towing the rest of Britain, half of which is drunkenly cheering this on because Brittania rules the waves or some such nonsense, and the other half which is reacting to all this with perfectly understandable horror. That's Brexit for you.

Dec. 18, 2018
10:04 am JST

What is it about the Leadership Her Majesty's Government and opposition? Both seem to revel in humiliating themselves. Firstly Theresa May ignominy in Brussels, followed by Corbyn pitifully embarrassing display Monday in the House of commons.

Could the electorate be witnessing a form of political self-flagellation?

Soon after the mid-January vote, the option of a second referendum will be orchestrated. Franky I hope not it will be politically poisonous, toxic.

Tony Blair should be sent to the tower and a spike prepared for his seditious noggin.

Dec. 18, 2018
10:14 am JST

I’ve not posted here since August: I find lurking is better for my sanity and blood-pressure than getting involved in the bad-tempered spats that so often erupt.

But I just wanted to say your comment is the best summing-up of the whole sorry situation I’ve come across anywhere.

I always used to find it funny when ex-pats returned to the UK and complained that it was no longer the same country they’d left. But it’s literally true now; I left the EU twenty-eight years ago, and I won’t be able to go back after next year.

Barring a massive infusion of common sense into the British body politic.

Dec. 18, 2018
10:34 am JST

The two major parties are not pro-Brexit. In the referendum, around 184 Tories voted to Remain (around 139 Leave) and 218 Labour MPs voted Remain (around 11 for Leave).

May is a Remainer, the majority of her Cabinet has continously been made up of MPs who voted to Remain and her Deal means the UK will not be leaving the EU.

Corbyn and May pay lip service to the people who voted to leave, but May is trying to push her deal which isn't Brexit in any sense. Corbyn is a Leaver, but he is being held hostage by the 95% (that's the actual percentage) of Labour MPs who voted to Remain.

Dec. 18, 2018
10:56 am JST

If it's a hard Brexit it would be unfortunate. Yet it gives the British and the EU a chance to start over with a clean slate and with neither side negotiating from a position of dominance over the other.

Dec. 18, 2018
11:04 am JST

This story is going on and on. I still don’t even understand the meaning of what is this deal. Just one sentence to explain is OK. Just a load of goobydock, 5 star hotels, meetings...I have a British passport. Can I live and work in Europe?

Dec. 18, 2018
11:10 am JST

Dec. 18, 2018
11:36 am JST

I thought I had inherited, at least some of my father ability to deduce peoples behaviour, rational , attitude, motivations, etc etc to form balanced opinion.

However where the UK political establishment is concerned, Theresa May in particular, It takes a unique blend of duplicity, trickery, and scheming subterfuge, to shamelessly present a Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration on the future relationship to an electorate so blatantly flawed and obtuse.

Is this a conspiracy to deceive, cheat the public? Or the height of incompetent, combined with horrendously poor negotiating skills?.

Either way, neither comes close to Tony Blair sociopathic hoodwinkery.

Dec. 18, 2018
12:17 pm JST

Dec. 18, 2018
12:22 pm JST

Tony Blair

As much as I dislike the man, he’s allowed an opinion.

He’s also a very competent politician. I’d take him over the bungling bureaucrat May or Jeremy ‘you’re even crapper than I am’ Corbyn in this situation. Labour should be crucifying the Tories in the polls but voters actually trust May more than Corbyn.

Dec. 18, 2018
01:00 pm JST

Sorry Goodlucktoyou, currently your question could depend on reciprocal agreements between the UK and the other 27 member states. To attempt to anticipate a visa system would be a tad premature.

I do not hold a British Passport but I have visa status to work in UK as well as France, Germany.

Hi Jimizo

Where Tony Blair is concerned, having and voicing ones opinion in a modern democracy is sacrosanct.

However if evidence emerges that Blair and Clegg have been deliberately and wilfully undermining the UK negotiating position in Brussels. My own humble opinion that whiffs of a deceitful breach of trust.

Dec. 18, 2018
02:26 pm JST

Dec. 18, 2018
09:05 pm JST

May is a Remainer, the majority of her Cabinet has continously been made up of MPs who voted to Remain and her Deal means the UK will not be leaving the EU.

Apparently you didn't understand the referendum question. It was indeed offering voters the chance to opt to "leave the European Union". And that's all the detail it provided. No one got to choose the type of deal they would get if they voted to leave.

Whether May supported or opposed leaving, as Prime Minister during the entire post-referendum period, she committed to honouring the referendum, and has so far done so. Triggering Article 50 formalizes the first stage of that process and is a major step closer to leaving. The subsequent negotiations, whatever the details, or even if they fail and result in no deal, will lead to Britain's exit from the EU. Membership will be terminated and Britain will have no further voting and no decision-making powers within the EU.

Try to remember this every time you say that the deal we eventually get - whether from May or anyone else - isn't Brexit. If Britain is no longer a member of the EU, it complies with the referendum, it's Brexit, and if you participated in the referendum, it's also exactly what you voted for.

If you expected certain measures dreamed up by UKIP, the Daily Express, or Boris Johnson, you may well be out of luck, because no vote was taken on that. The Brexit vote was an act of destruction, and it's so much easier to snipe at any deal for not being a hard enough Brexit than to face the reality that the vote was for a half-baked idea, badly thought through and badly managed.

Dec. 18, 2018
10:26 pm JST

You Britons who voted "yes" in the original referendum, really messed things up for your nation. Now instead of being proud and all that you should all hang your heads in shame and embarrassment. May is literally asking others to "agree with Briton's terms because it'll make things easier for Briton". I LOVE how she was laughed at in Parliament. It was nearly as funny as when Trump was, though May knew she was being laughed AT.